Corporate Eagle: A Soaring Success Story by Madhukant Acharya
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| Corporate Eagle by Madhukant Acharya |
Author: Madhukant Acharya
ISBN: 978-1685233372
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Length: 180 Pages
Publication Date: 23rd August 2021
Publisher: Notion Press
Order your copy right now: https://amzn.to/32oEoaS
About the author:
Madhukant Acharya was educated in some of the best schools and colleges in India and was adjudged the best student in his class. Soon after he joined the corporate world, working with eminent multinational companies and rose from a management trainee to the company’s board position in a short span of twenty years and was awarded 'Marketing Man of the Year' from the President of India. He has widely travelled in India and abroad and continues to be an avid reader. The author leads an active social life with friends and family and is a popular member of premier clubs. His interests involve being a fitness enthusiast and doing social and charitable work in rural areas. Many of his friends call him ‘people happy’.
Settled in Mumbai for nearly forty years with wife Kalpana, his children pursue careers in the US and Mumbai being doctors, engineers and MBAs. The idea of writing a novel motivated him some years ago after professional retirement when he rescheduled his priorities and lifestyle to devote required time to creating his debut novel Friends and five seasons in two volumes — Rupen's Early Years and Publishing hero Rupen.
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| Madhukant Acharya |
Instagram: @authormadhukant
Twitter: @authormadhukant
Disclaimer: This review is only intended for initiating discussions. The opinions and views presented in this article are my own and do not reflect anything about the book's author.
REVIEW
Corporate Eagle by Madhukant Acharya is a fiction book spanning Mohan Dutt’s twenty-five years long corporate life that is indeed, as the title suggests, successful and always moving in an upward direction; set in India, it covers a handful of remarkable events that took place from the late 1970s to the mid-2000s; the book depicts the journey of its canny, perspicacious and enterprising protagonist from being a management trainee to becoming the chairman and country head of the fashion and clothing company, for which he worked doggedly and made contributions that proved indispensable to the making of one of the top corporate giant conglomerate in India; gives you an insight into the challenges and crucial decision-making processes faced by companies and the ethics and policies to go by to keep soaring high in the air; lastly, it shows how giving back to the society (CSR) is important, not only for the economic and social upliftment of the country but also the company itself.
The stated corporate theme here has strong political overtones, which is obvious because the influence of politics within and outside industries cannot be overlooked in any case. The book also starts with the communists winning the elections and what followed was the exodus of industrialists from West Bengal to other parts of India because of the labour disputes and lock-outs. There are a lot of such political events in the book inspired by Indian political history. For instance, finance minister Manmohan Singh and prime minister PV Narsimha Rao doing away with the license-raj regime. The other part of the theme is corporate warfare, which includes dealing with other rival companies, countering their efforts of a hostile takeover, remaining competitive in the market, warding off unwanted influences, etc. The protagonist Mohan deals with it very tactfully and manages to keep his records clean. Additionally, he looks for opportunities to expand the company in whatever aspects he could. Being a chairman, he keeps every department head in check and provides required guidance dutifully. There come a lot of obstacles and challenges pertaining to income tax, shifting of headquarters, politicians withholding raw materials, the factory shut down, legal battles, etc. The author has given detailed insights into the decisions that the protagonist takes while dealing with the obstacles as well as while planning for the expansion of the company into various other fields such as Information Technology, Finance, Sports, etc.
As you can see that the corporate journey of the protagonist as well as the company is very compelling, although the novel as a whole is not as compelling considering the plot, narration, and setting. The book reads as if being non-fiction, documenting the life of a veteran industrialist in a particular company, stating data and information without any regard for surrounding elements. This also makes it an overview of the many modifications and expansions that the company has undergone. For instance, a single chapter runs you through several years of company-related happenings but doesn't offer how it is executed on the ground. While the corporate-specific insights may be interesting, the novel falls prey to the problem of ‘too much information’, where each chapter has the potential to be an independent novel. Being a successful story, this novel doesn’t even have a single falling moment, a crisis or a disaster, which also discards any possibilities of having any climax. However, as compensation for the missing action, the novel has two significant sports events that will keep you on the edge towards the end. The book is definitely not what you would expect after reading the synopsis on the back cover, because the novel exceeds your expectations in the corporate aspect, while also failing to deliver what it promises—the presence of Kumud and Cindy. They were mentioned in the book now and then, but they didn’t have even the littlest of roles to play.
Happy Reading!
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Will see you in the next post. Till then buh-bye. Take Care. Peace. ☮
